Rose Petals
by Mokooinn
Summary: This is a very work in progress story that I started working on a few months back. It's a time travel AU with a twist. Ruby is gifted one chance to change everything, to go back to the very beginning. Spoilers for volumes 5,6. Might add in some stuff from volume 7 later on.
1. The Start of a New Beginning

"Thus kindly I scatter" That's what was etched into the grave of Summer Rose.

Next to the gravesite was a stack of pelican cases and a woman sitting around 5'11 dressed in a black cloak with crimson accents and a "low profile" gray rose emblem embroidered on the back, she wore black cargos with a pair of steel towed combat boots with a red undershirt and a beat-up black leather jacket with red lining and had a what appeared to be an old torn up orange cloth wrapped around the right arm of the jacket.

This woman was Ruby Rose. Daughter of Summer Rose. Ruby as of now was in her early twenties and was emotionally broken.

Her team?

Gone.

Her family?

Gone.

The kingdoms?

Gone.

Ruby Rose was truly the last person alive Remnant.

Four years ago when Ruby was 18, her and the rest of team RWBY along with what was left of team JNPR, Qrow, and Oscar were able to retrieve the relic of destruction after the literal fall of Atlus which regrettably led to the collapse of Mantal.

Everyone attempted to combat Salem at once hoping that it be enough to make an opening. The sword's power to destroy anything that the Gods deemed so, would be enough to put an end to her for good.

On the brink with her followers killed and her home in tatters. Salem, in a last-ditch effort, was able to mimic the attack that wiped out humanity the first time however, it was far from perfect, it was just a shoddy replica.

The attack had one major flaw, it used the majority of Salem's magic and was fueled by grim. Ruby saw the opportunity of a hundred lifetimes right before her silver eyes, her predecessors have never thought that they themselves would get this close, let alone the thought of actually winning.

Ruby used everything that she had learned about her eyes to completely shield herself and weaken Salem at the same time. Ruby was able to pierce Salem's heart with the relic, ending her immortal life for good. The strain her eyes put on her after using them caused her to pass out.

* * *

"Miss Rose!" Her eyes snapped open in surprise as she was startled awake and was quick to recognize the voice of her former headmaster.

"What Ozpin?" She started getting up, still in pain from the massive headache. She scanned around the room for Oscar which was no were to be found.

"Ruby, I'm sorry." He replied, Ruby still searching for her friends was confused at to where the voice was coming from.

"Where is everyone Oz?"

There was complete silence. Ruby was piecing it together but was in utter denial.

"Ruby deep down you know the answer to that." He said sorrowfully. Ruby started to panic a little.

"D-Don't joke about that, where's Oscar? where are you?" She asked already knowing the answer to her question.

"You know what I'm going to say." Silence followed after his sentence.

"T-This can't be happening, I-I don't know what to do." She put her head into her palms. After a long silence an idea formed out of terror and panic.

"Oz", she whispered trying to hold back her tears. "Do you think we can use the lamp one more time to see how to fix this?" her mind was racing, trying to process the inevitable despair setting in.

"I don't know if this can be fixed Ruby." After a slight pause Ruby reached for the lamp that she had retrieved from Cinder's corpse, attached to her belt only to find out that she couldn't move her arm toward the lamp any further.

"I can't let you do that Ruby, not right now, we were lucky enough to re-obtain it with its last question intact. We only have that one more question. If we use it now we have to wait for the next 100 years and sadly we both won't live that long. After this last question, we will have exhausted all other options." Ruby was shell shocked she couldn't think straight and she knew that.

She moved towards Yang's last seen position, just to find a pile of clothes. she rummaged through the pile slightly and gripped Yang's scarf tightly.

"What about Maria? Maybe she can help or-"

"RUBY STOP! WE ARE THE ONLY ONES LEFT!" It was harsh but it was necessary to snap her out of the hellish cycle of thoughts she was having.

"Take a break, for now, all you can do right now is morn, rest up and leave the rest up to me for now." Ozpin replied in a calming tone of voice as she slipped into unconsciousness


	2. A New Hunt Begins

It had been days since the battle had ended, days since Salem had taken everything away from her, days since Salem died by her hands.

Ruby had locked herself away in her head still denying the situation, the only thing she had done before sealing herself up in her head was grabbed Yang's scarf.

The one thing lingering in the back of her mind, the one thing she had truly hoped for was that Salem had tricked her into thinking that she was the only one left, as much as she hoped, she knew it wasn't true.

_"I'm the only one left."_ she spoke in her mind, her memories of her friends no, her family played on repeat for what felt like an eternity, up until the final gruesome moments of just screaming before she had passed out. Silence filled her mind.

Ruby repeatedly played the memory back and forth, again and again, it was the only thing she could think about. The first 30 times there was just sadness and sorrow, the next 10 times she regretted the fact that she hadn't been able to save the only people she loved, but the next few hundred times there was just anger, hatred, rage, all the strong negative emotions that attracted Grimm.

* * *

Ozpin was going through the motions for Rudy, eating, sleeping, killing Grimm to survive, but the more Grimm he went through, the more they kept coming.

"Ruby." he sighed quietly to himself, but before he knew it he was thrown back into the mind and something surfaced, but it wasn't Ruby at least it wasn't the Ruby he had become fond of over the past year or so at Beacon or the one he came accustomed to traveling with.

The Ruby that came out wasn't the one that went in, that was clear. She was oozing negativity and forcing him so far back that he was powerless in this situation.

**_"_****_RUBY GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF!" _**but to no avail, she was in full control and she'd be damned if he had any say about it. Too busy trying to snap Ruby out of it he failed to notice the small pack of beowolves rapidly approaching their position.

Ruby was standing still with her head hung low patiently waiting for the two members in front of the pack to lunge at her and as they did they were cut down like cattle in seconds, not even hitting the ground before disappearing into thin air.

**"YOU ARE GOING TO PAY!****" **her scream cut through the air like a hot knife through butter. She then rushed into the remaining members of the pack making very short work of them.

* * *

Ruby's rage-induced extermination of any Grimm in sight lasted a week and a half, she barely ate or slept only moving towards an abandoned village or town if it had Grimm in sight.

After clearing out a small town she walked to the nearest place to find something to eat and sleep, in this case it was a tavern.

Ruby opens the doors to find an unsurprising sight, an empty lobby with clothes and personal items scattered about.

"At least I won't have to worry about booking a room." she joked bitterly to herself.

Ruby was a mess, only eating and drinking enough to get by and sleeping for an hour if even, she had pushed herself to her limit, her hair was a mess, clothes in tatters, and was mentally exhausted.

_"Ruby, you need a break, you can barely stand without wobbling around like a drunk." _

"If I'm wobbling around like one I might as well be one." she argues as she finds her way around the other side of the bar that was conjoined with the lobby, grabbing a bottle of whiskey and a glass.

_"Your sister would-" _

"Don't" she growled in a low tone of voice as she sat down.

There was silence for a moment. Ruby sighed as she leaned over the bar slightly and put her head down.

"I've settled down a bit, I just need some time to cool off a little more and collect my thoughts and I'm hoping a drink will help with that, although I've seen differently." thinking back to when Qrow was of no help in the cellar back at Brunswick's farm. _"Dust, I'm helpless." _she thought to herself, although that was a tad bit hard with someone actively in your head.

_"__If__ you want to drink then, by all means, have a drink, we both know you might be better off with one." _

"You aren't against me having a drink even if I'm under the age limit?" she questioned.

_"If I can't stop you then that's that, not like anyone else_ _can." _Ozpin said with a slight pause after realizing that he made it sound like it was Ruby's fault that know one was around.

_"I didn't mean it like that Ruby." halfway_ through his apology Ruby had already got up and started pouring some of the liquid amber into her glass.

Ruby raised her glass in the air and toasted by herself. "To family, friends, and to all who have lost their lives, to the fallen." she spoke softly as she downed the contents of the glass.

* * *

After the bottle was emptied she had passed out on the bar, when she awoke she immediately noticed two things.

One, she was happy that she hadn't eaten anything before drinking.

Two, she shouldn't have drank that much for her first experience with alcohol.

After experiencing her first hangover of her life and after she finished emptying what little there was in her stomach, she walked around the tavern looking at all of the items left behind scattered around the floor, she knew if she was going to make it she would have to leave what was left of her tantrum and regret behind and start picking things up, literally.

Ruby searched the floor for anything useful, all she found that was useful was a big hiking backpack, some provisions, various types of ammo, a messenger bag, and some clothes.

_"Ruby I think we should stay here for a while or make this little town our base of operations for now or our campsite at the very least." _

Ruby was now moving towards the empty kitchen behind the bar.

"I was just thinking the same thing, besides I need a place to rest up before I go back to that place, that witch's castle." Ruby spoke with a hint of venom in her voice.

_"what is it that you need there?" _slightly confused as to why she wanted to go back after all that had happened.

"I wasn't thinking straight up until now, I almost forgot about the one thing that will keep me going throughout this little crusade of ours, they're weapons."

_"And might I ask that you remind me what this "little crusade of ours" is exactly?" _

"That's simple, we're going to get the rest of the relics, even if it kills us."


	3. Update

Sorry again, (I should really stop doing this) this is not a new chapter. Unfortunately the computer that I've been using to publish this story has died (I'm now using my phone). The desktop I have is still alive, but is in need of a new graphics card and the laptop that I have been using for tytyping this sorry has died. That laptop and I have been through thick and thin, and has lasted me 7 years. This update will be deleted as soon as I get a new laptop. My thoughts on typing out chapters in bulk and then posting them has yet to change but this incident has halted that thought process, so as of now, this story is officially on hiatus. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience, and I hope to have the problem fixed soon.

Before I go, I would like to thank the two people that have responded thus far.

**Girl's Dark Imagination: **Thank you so much for your suggestion and feedback, now that I've looked back on what has been posted, I feel like an idiot. Seriously, thank you for that.

**Inquisitek: **Thank you for suggesting that I should proofread before posting. I completely overlooked the Idea of proofreading, now I feel like a bigger idiot. Everyone makes mistakes, some bigger than others, but as long as you learn something from them, you'll improve.

**P.S. When this update gets deleted I will move the two mentions to the next chapter or the next Author's Notes/Update. Thank you and I hope you have a good start to 2020. Happy New Year's.**


	4. Quarantine update

I'm so sorry to have made you wait this long. With the quarantine in effect I seem to have a lot more time on my hands. With that said, I have started working on new chapters and concepts for how the story will progress.

Even though I have more time, it doesn't mean that I have given up on my social life, the new chapter will hopefully come out this friday. I have resorted to using my phone to update and post new chapter's.

That is all for now, stay safe.


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